‎OCTAVE AUBRY‎
‎Napoléon.‎

‎Frédéric César Laharpe 1754 - 1838, précepteur du Tsar Alexandre 1er, antagoniste de Napoléon, libérateur du pays de Vaud, batisseur de la Suisse actuelle,‎

‎La Baconnière, Neuchâtel, 1969, 426 pp., relié, illustrations, jaquette légèrement salie, légères traces de rousseurs sur la tranche supérieure, bon état.‎

‎Théâtre 1: Le veau gras - Les Zouaves - Bava l'Africain - Destination inconnue - Printemps - Pauvre napoléon - Les joyeuses commères de Windson - Bouton d'avril - Beau Danube rouge, ‎

‎La table ronde, 1968, 568 pp., broché, bon état général.‎

‎[Life of Napoleon Bonaparte]‎

‎Londres, John Cumberland, John Fairburn, 1823-1825. In-4 oblong de 22 planches (33,5 x 21,5 cm) montées sur onglet, demi toile verte, dos lisse, titre doré frappé en long (relié vers 1880). ‎

‎Album factice réunissant vingt-deux planches coloriées et gravées d'après Carle Vernet par le célèbre illustrateur et caricaturiste britannique George Cruikshank (1792 –1878) :Napoleon Bonaparte on his Celebrated White Charger. London, John Fairburn, November 7, 1823 ; Napoleon Forcing the Passage of the Bridge of Arcola. London, John Fairburn, April 2, 1823 ; Napoleon at the Sanguinary Battle on the Bridge of Lodi. London, John Fairburn, May 10, 1823 ; Napoleon & Augereau, in the Heat of the Tremendous Battle of St. George. London, John Fairburn, June 2, 1823 ; Napoleon & Massena Defeating the Austrian Army, at the Terrible Battle of Roveredo. London, John Fairburn, August 1, 1823 ; Napoleon at the Passage and Battle of the River Tagliamento. London, John Fairburn, September 11, 1823 ; The Attack and Capture of Naples, by the French, After a Most Obstinate Resistance. London, John Cumberland, December 27, 1823 ; Napoleon Defeating the Mamelukes, at the Battle of the Pyramids, Near Cairo. London, John Fairburn, October 7, 1823 ; Napoleon, & Kleber, Defeating the Mamelukes, at the Battle of Mount Thabor. London, John Fairburn, March 1, 1824 ; Napoleon Defeating the Turkish Pacha, at the Battle of Aboukir. London, John Fairburn, September 22, 1824 ; Napoleon and his Army Effecting the Wonderful Passage of the Alps, at Mount St. Bernard. London, John Fairburn, July 1, 1823 ; Napoleon's Decisive Victory Over the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo. London, John Fairburn, August 14, 1824 ; Napoleon, When First Consul, & Madame Josephine, (His First Wife) in the Garden at Malmaison. London, John Fairburn, November 26, 1824 ; Napoleon Receiving the Sword of General Mack, on the Capitulation of Ulm. London, John Cumberland, December 29, 1824 ; Napoleon's Bivouac on the Night Preceding the Memorable Battle of Austerlitz. London, John Cumberland, May 1, 1824 ; Napoleon Receiving from General Rapp the Austrian Standard, Surrendered at Austerlitz. [London, John Fairburn, July 1, 1824 ; Napoleon's Entrance into the City of Berlin. London, John Cumberland, August 27, 1825. Napoleon Defeating the Prussian Army, at the Battle of Eylau. London, John Cumberland, June 6, 1825 ; Napoleon, & the Emperor Alexander, Upon the Raft, on the Niemen, After the Treaty of Tilsit. London, John Cumberland, March 29, 1825 ; Napoleon Witnessing the Conflagration of Moscow., from the palace of the Kremlin. London, John Cumberland, January 20, 1826 ; Napoleon's Arrival at the Tuilleries on his Return from Elba. London, John Cumberland, September 15, 1827 ; Napoleon Terminating his Military Career, at the Memorable Battle of Waterloo. London John Fairburn, October 21, 1825.Tâches et brunissures en marge, traces de pliure, sur quelques planches, 4 planches un peu courte de marges. ‎

‎Napoléon, vie de. - Silhouettes. Ensemble de 25 silhouettes retraçant la vie de l'empereur. s.d. (vers 1825). Papier vergé découpé et entièrement noirci à l'encre au recto, 55-105 x 100-200 mm. Numérotation manuscrite au verso, une seule légende manuscrite, également au verso. Les 25 silhouettes ont été placées chacune, à l'époque moderne, entre un feuillet cartonné blanc crème et un feuillet transparent (190 x 255 mm).‎

‎ s.d., (ca. 1825), 21 x 27 cm (le boîtier). Le tout est réuni dans un boîtier cartonné, pièce de titre sur le couvercle, languette de ruban intérieure permettant d'exhausser les feuillets.‎

‎Très rare collection de silhouettes (ou découpages, en allemand ‘Scherenschnitte’) originales, réalisées peu après 1821 et la mort de l'empereur: la qualité du papier vergé utilisé et les caractéristiques des inscriptions au verso (couleur de l'encre, souplesse de la plume et écriture) ne laissent aucun doute. Ce superbe ensemble, réalisé avec autant de finesse dans l'exécution que de naïvité dans la conception, relève de la tradition iconographique populaire, illustrant aussi bien des aspects événementiels que psychologiques de la vie de Napoléon à partir d'anecdotes identifiables et emblématiques, même si le détail de certaines silhouettes trahit une influence des grandes oeuvres peintes à l'époque: la représentation de Napoléon franchissant les Alpes est clairement inspirée du tableau de David et la silhouette montrant Rapp annonçant à Napoléon la défaite des Russes à la fin de la bataille d'Austerlitz reprend distinctement le tableau de Gérard. La collection comprend les pièces suivantes, présentées dans l'ordre spécifié de manière manuscrite au verso de chaque silhouette (nous avons conservé cet ordre, ce qui explique un certain flottement chronologique): 1) Bonaparte au pont d'Arcole (17 novembre 1796) / 2) Passage des Alpes (14-25 mai 1800) / 3) Probablement la reddition de Mantoue, où l'on voit Bonaparte et la silhouette empanachée de Kellerman (2 février 1797) / 4) Un soldat à genoux devant Bonaparte. / 5) Bonaparte dirige la bataille. / 6) Austerlitz: le général Rapp vient annoncer à Napoléon la défaite de l'armée russe (2 décembre 1805) / 7 et 8) Napoléon au bivouac, veille de bataille. / 9) Certainement Napoléon montrant avec admiration le travail de Larrey, peut-être à la bataille d'Eylau où il lui offre sa propre épée en signe de reconnaissance (8 février 1807) / 10) Napoléon devant le tombeau de Frédéric le Grand (25 octobre 1806) / 11) Clémence de Napoléon: grâce du prince de Hatzfeld (octobre 1806) / 12) Essling: adieux de Napoléon à Lannes (22 mai 1809) / 13) Napoléon désigne un soldat à l'attention de deux personnes en civil / 14) Reddition de Vienne (13 novembre 1805) / 15) Napoléon saluant un blessé / 16) ‘On ne passe pas!’ une sentinelle respecte la consigne et interdit le passage à Napoléon / 17) ‘Après vous, sire!’ : Un soldat offre à boire à l'empereur / 18) A la barrière de l'Etoile, à Paris (légende inscrite au verso de la silhouette) / 19) Napoléon pointant le canon à Montereau / 20) Vol de l'aigle: le colonel de La Bédoyère entraînant le 7e de ligne en faveur de Napoléon (7 mars 1815) / 21) Les adieux de Fontainebleau (20 avril 1815) / 22) Napoléon à Saint-Hélène / 23) Mort de Napoléon (5 mai 1821) / 24) Tombeau de Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène / 25) Retraite du corps polonais à Leipzig, coupée par l'explosion du dernier pont sur l'Elster (19 octobre 1813). NAPOLEON'S LIFE IN ORIGINAL EARLY XIXth c. PAPERCUTS Image disp.‎

‎Mécanique Philosophique, ou Analyse Raisonnée des diverses parties de la Science de l'Équilibre et du Mouvement. - [FROM NAPOLEON'S LIBRARY]‎

‎Paris, Imprimerie de la République, an VIII [i.e. 1800]. 4to. Bound in a lovely full mottled calf binding with fine, gilt ornamental borders to boards, double gilt line-borders to all edges of boards and a richly gilt spine. Spine with gilt red leather title-label and with the gilt monogram of Joséphine and Napoléon - ""JB"" - to lower spine. Neatly rebacked. With a handwritten inscription for Napoleon to title-page ""Au Citoyen Bonaparte/ premier Consul de la République francaise/ De la part du Conseil [de]/ L'Ecole Polythechnique"", with a signature underneath and the stamp of the Ecole Polytechnique. The inscription is slighly cropped at the outer margin. A bit of brownspotting here and there. (4), VII, (1), 477, (3) pp. ‎

‎First edition, original offprint from Journal Polytechnique, Tome III, Cahiers 7 & 8, of Prony's magnum opus ""Mécanique phlilosophique"". The three parts here are all that appeared, as the planned two parts announced on the verso of the extra title-page never appeared. A truly splendid copy from Napoleon's library, with the gilt monogram of him and Joséphine from the library at Malmaison and with a presentation-inscription for Napoléon, which is rare. Books from the library at Malmaison do occasionally appear on the market, although they are rare. They are usually taken to be mainly Joséphine's, as she spent more time there. This, however, is a rare exception. First, we know that Napoléon actually did spend time at Malmaison at the time that he was given the present volume, around 1800, second, it bears an inscription for him, which is rare, determining for a fact that this was one of his books, not Joséphine's. Together with the Tuileries, Malmaison was the French government's headquarters from 1800 to 1802, exactly the time that Napoleon will have been given the present book and incorporated it in his library. Many of the books at the Malmaison library were books on things like gardening that Joséphine cared a great deal about. These were clearly her books. And some of the books, like the present, were clearly those of Napoleon himself. Napoleon was a voracious reader and he spent much time in his library studying his books. He had a personal librarian, always travelled with books, and took pride in constructing portable libraries as well as the rooms for his own actual library. On 9 July 1800, he gave the commission for a study to be built in place of the three small rooms situated on the south corner pavilion of Malmaison. Fontaine removed the partition walls and commissioned the Jacob brothers to make the teak woodwork. On 18 September, Fontaine wrote: “Everything is now in place, and even though the First Consul found that the room looked like a church sacristy, he was nevertheless forced to admit that it would have been difficult to do better in such an unsuitable space”. The paintings of the great ancient and classical authors which surround Apollo and Minerva on the ceiling were probably executed by Lafitte. Napoleon had been an avid reader since he was quite young, and when he began studying at the École Militaire in Paris, he continued to read classics, literature, and philosophy, as he would throughout his life, but he also read more scientifically and strategically aimed books. “His appetite for reading books continued as he rose in power. In 1798, about to depart on the Egyptian campaign, he gave Bourrienne a list of books he wanted in his camp library. These included works in Sciences and Arts (e.g., Treatise on Fortifications), Geography and Travels (e.g., Cook’s Voyages), History (e.g., Thucydides, Frederick II), Poetry (e.g., Ossian, Tasso, Ariosto), Novels (e.g., Voltaire, Héloïse, Werther and 40 volumes of “English novels”), and Politics and Morals (the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, etc.)” (Shannon Selin: Bonaparte the Book Worm), giving us a great insight into his preferences at the time. Prony, with his great Mechanical Philosophy, will have fallen perfectly amongst these great writers, when Napoleon returned to Malmaison, combining politics, science, and philosophy. It is not difficult to see how Napoleon will have been intrigued by mechanical philosophy, which is a form of natural philosophy that compares the universe to a large-scale mechanism. Mechanical philosophy is associated with the scientific revolution of Early Modern Europe, and one of the first expositions of universal mechanism is found in the opening passages of Hobbes’s Leviathan. Prony, in the present work, argues that mechanical principles in the practical arts themselves call for philosophical analysis. Baron Gaspard de Prony (1755-1839) was a French mathematician and engineer. He was educated at the Benedictine College at Toissei in Doubs. From there, he entered the École des Ponts et Chaussés in 1776, where he studied engineering until graduating in 1779. “In 1780 he became an engineer with the École des Ponts et Chaussés and after three years in a number of different regions of France he returned to the École des Ponts et Chaussés in Paris 1783. This was the same year he published his first major work in the Académie des Sciences on the forces on arches. Monge was impressed with this paper and realised that de Prony was someone of great potential. In 1785 de Prony visited England on a project to obtain an accurate measurement of the relative positions of the Greenwich Observatory and the Paris Observatory. Two years later he was promoted to inspector at the École des Ponts et Chaussés. Around this time he was involved with the work on the Louis XVI Bridge in Paris which is now called the Pont de la Concorde. Further promotion in 1790 was followed the next year by his being appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the École des Ponts et Chaussés. This promotion was as a result of the opening of the Louis XVI Bridge. Also around 1791 de Prony was working on geometry with Pierre Girard. Then in 1792, de Prony began a major task of producing logarithmic and trigonometric tables, the Cadastre. With the assistance of Legendre, Carnot and other mathematicians, and between 70 to 80 assistants, the work was undertaken over a period of years, being completed in 1801. […] In 1794 the École Centrale des Travaux Publics was founded by and was directed by Carnot and Monge. It was renamed the École Polytechnique in 1795 and de Prony was certainly one of the main lectures by this time. He is listed among the first teachers at the university […] In 1798 de Prony refused Napoleon's request that he join his army of invasion to Egypt. Fourier, Monge and Malus had agreed to be part of the expeditionary force and Napoleon was angry that de Prony would not come. It did mean that de Prony was to fail to receive the honours he deserved from Napoleon but de Prony's wife was a close friend of Joséphine and this probably saved de Prony from anything worse. In 1798 de Prony achieved his ambition of being appointed director of the École des Ponts et Chaussés. His desire for this post was almost certainly a main reason for his refusing to join Napoleon. As director he began producing a number of important texts on mathematical physics.” (From University of St. Andrews scientific biographies). The present book and its presentation to Napoleon comes from this time, linking the two even closer. After Napoleon was defeated, the reorganization in France included a reorganization of the École Polytechnique, which was closed during 1816. De Prony lost his position as professor there and was not part of the reorganization committee. However, as soon as the school reopened, de Prony was asked to be an examiner so he continued his connection yet only had to work one month per year.‎